Easter Basket

My mailman request an easter basket of goodies last weekend. I made up a couple for him to choose from and wanted to post a photo of one. I really like the way it turned out. I hope more people will request similar type baskets in the future. It was really fun to put together. It also helped me to get motivated to wrap lots of soap. Hopefully, I will start making more sales so I will have room to make more products. I just purchased a bunch of rubbermaid containers today and organized my soap studio a bit. I still need to get a lot more containers though. But, the studio looks much better and I have a lot more room on my work table to get creative. I also made a ton of flyers this week that I will be posting around the area and sending to friends to put up. Lucky for me that I live on a college campus filled with very "earthy" people that I imagine would like my soaps.

Cucumber melon soap

Last weekend I made a batch of cucumber melon soap. I made the green swirls by mixing a portion of the soap with spirulina powder. Spirulina is algae that is "farmed" across the world and eaten. It is 60% all-vegetable protein, rich in beta carotene, iron, vitamin B-12 and the rare essential fatty acid, GLA. It offers a striking profile of vitamins, minerals and phytonutrents. It has been shown in numerous scientific studies to have remarkable health benefits.

KristysLovelyLathers.etsy.com

Just looking around on Etsy and I spotted these pretty soaps. I would really like to get a slab mold to try out some of cool designs like these. Right now I just have loaf molds and some other shaped molds. Anyways, I think these are really pretty. I love the artistry some people put into their soaps. Check them out: KristysLovelyLathers

Business Cards

I ordered some business cards from vistaprint.com yesterday. Hope you all like the design I came up with. :)

Felted Soap

My felted soap came out okay. I think I still need to work on the technique. I had trouble getting about a 1 inch section where there was roving overlap to blend with itself. So, it sticks out a little. I think as I use it in the shower it will get better. Next time I will try with a little bit less roving. I think it would probably be much quicker if I had a wash board, but I really just don't want to spend the money on one. I tried out the soap in the shower this morning and it was not as sudsy as when I was making the soap. I wonder if every time I use it if it will take that long to get really sudsy? Or maybe it just took so long because I had fully dried the soap after I felted it.

So cute!

I just came across this AMAZING description of saponification. You must check it out. It will certainly put a smile on your face!

Hope you all had a nice Easter and were able to spend some time with your loved ones!

Felting soap

I just received two packages of roving that I purchased from Maine Woods Yarn & Fiber on etsy. They are absolutely beautiful. I can't wait to see how they look on soap. I am going to try out felting some of my soap tomorrow. I will let you know how it turns out. I will be following the instruction that are posted at Mielke's Fiber Arts they have a great tutorial with lots of photos. have any of you tried out felting soap? If so how do you like it?

I am official!

Well, I took the plunge and sent in my application to become a registered business. This means that starting April 1 I will have to charge a 6% sales and use tax for products sold in Connecticut. I am quite excited to become "official". I have spent about 2 weeks pouring over books and the Connecticut government website. I found two books to be really useful for this transition: Soapmaking for Fun & Profit by Maria Nerius and Handmade for Profit by Barbara Brabec.

I also received my water resistant labels today! I purchased them from Brown Kraft Labels just 2 days ago! It is always exciting to receive a package in the mail. :) I will be spending tomorrow trying to make some pretty designs for deodorant, scrubs and lip balm.

Peppermint Massage Bar

I just made two peppermint massage bars. It is probably best used on your feet, but could be used all over. I just tried it on my feet and it really feels nice. I put it on about an hour ago and my feet still feel nice and tingly. I used a peppermint essential oil in it which can help smooth and relax muscles when applied to the skin. I think this will be really great to use are a hard workout or after standing on your feet all day. I am going to use Dylan as my guinea pig for this product. He just had a black belt test on Friday for Kempo and has been complaining all weekend that he is sooo sore. Let's see if this massage bar help to relieve the pain!

Mocha Café Sugar Scrub

I am really loving sugar scrubs. I made this one with some ground coffee, vanilla FO, and vanilla frappuccino FO. I think it looks and smells really good. I modified my recipe again so that I got back the layer of oil when the sugar settles. I have decided that I prefer the extra oil in the end product. It helps to spread the sugar and I like to have some oil left on my body after I shower so that I do not have to use lotion. I will probably be listing a container of this product soon on my Etsy site. I just need to make some labels, but I think I need to get some waterproof labels first.

Cranberry and Cucumber Melon Soaps

No not those two scents together..that would probably be horrible. Yesterday I made a cranberry scented soap with a swirl of cranberry fruit fiber and red sparkles for color. The red kinda turned a brown color but it looks like with curing it may turn a little redder. I made some little ladybug shaped soap with the left over soap and those are turning a purple-red color. I poured this soap at a very thick trace so that I could try making some texture on the top of the soap. I think, even with the color not being bright red like I had wanted, it still looks pretty nice.

The second batch I made was scented with a cucumber melon FO. I used spirulina powder to make a green swirl. This soap ended up tracing really fast so it was already pretty thick when i poured it. I did not think that I would be able to get nice swirls, but I am actually really happy with how it turned out.

These soaps will both be available for purchase around April 6th.

I will add pictures later today, hopefully.

Green tea deodorant

I just took a picture of the labels I made for my deodorant that I wanted to post. I think I need to make them taller and increase the logo size so there is more color. I really love this deodorant though. It withstands hard workouts and still keeps me smelling eucalyptus-ie.

Ginger Honey Sugar Scrub

I used up all of my last sugar scrub and decided to make a new one tonight. This one I increased the amount of sugar in an attempt to decrease the amount of oil that accumulates on top of the scrub when it sits. I also left out the cocoa powder that I used last time and I scented it with a honey ginger FO. It smells really great. I can't wait to try it out tomorrow. I have become totally addicted to these scrubs. I love the way they leave a slight trace of oil on your skin that acts like a lotion. My skin really looks and feels much softer in just 2 weeks. I think next time I will make a cranberry sugar scrub. I have a sparkling cranberry FO and some cranberry fruit fiber that I think would go great in a scrub. It would probably turn out pink so it would be super cute, too! I was also thinking of changing the cocoa butter to shea butter just to try out different combinations. Here is a picture I took of the scrub.

Natural Deodorant

I just made some natural deodorant in a deodorant stick. I kept one tube au natural with only the essential oils and the other two tubes I scented with green tea fragrance oil. I was having trouble trying to decide what scent to go with for the deodorant. I kept thinking it should be earthy like sandalwood or patchouli. What kind of scents would you like? Do you think fruity or flowery scents or even birthday cake scent would be good? I also just came across a deodorant recipe that is made in a mold. Would that be weird? I mean you would still need a dish to keep it on and how would you feel about touching the deodorant bar. I guess it would save on plastic be be a bit better for the environment.

Vanilla Chai Tea Soap

I just realized that I never posted photos of my Chai Tea soap. I made this batch with a wonderful blend of olive and palm oils, beeswax, silk fibers, vanilla FO, chai tea FO, poppy mica, water, and NaOH. I am writing NaOH instead of sodium hydroxide, because it is the scientific short form term. For some reason, I dislike the word lye...so I would love if other soapers started referring to sodium hydroxide as NaOH. This would really help with my laziness since I hate having to type out sodium hydroxide. Anyways, enough ranting, here is the long awaited soap. Enjoy!



Again, I must thank my wonderful partner, Dylan, for these amazing photos!

Goals for tomorrow

Okay so I have a lot planned for tomorrow. I want to try out a recipe for natural deodorant that I saw on craftster.org posted by Spa Therapy Works. I have been waiting to get the deodorant containers that I needed and I received them on Thursday so I am ready to give it a try. I also want to make another sugar scrub since I am totally addicted to them now. I was thinking of doing a ginger scent. Maybe I can grate in some fresh ginger as well. I will have to see if I have a ginger FO in my work area. If I have time and all the ingredients I think I will also try a bath bomb, but I am not sure that I have any good bath bomb molds. I also plan to go to the pottery studio for studio hours and finish trimming some pieces and maybe throw some more pots. I just got my first pots back last weekend. The glazes look really nice but the pots show that I am clearly a beginner. I will post some pictures soon so you all can have a good laugh. I also need to run to the post office and I am kinda in the mood to do some shopping. I was thinking new jeans would be nice. What are you all doing this weekend?